The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-01-09
Printed ~ Special arrangement Copyrighted 1887
A LOST IDENTITY.
BY HARRIET PRESCOTT sPoFFoRD.
PART 1.

PART 1.
When two young seedlings, placed side by
size, watered by the same shower warmed by
I'll e same sun, shaken by the same breezes, have
grown so close together that their roots make
one tangle and their stems one fibre, how is it
possible to separate them and leave them any
life at alll Separated can they be more than
dead wood to be used for the purposes of others,
with no vitality OF joy of their own further
than the log has that burns upon the hearth7
of Leonard and Helena. Never have seen two
people so sufficient to themselves through all
the changes of the planet Separated, would
either of them live other than as a seulless
shadow? They thought not-looking at their
happiness as il it were thing they held in their
hands; unashamed of their love, and speaking of
it freely in any passionate moment
81 think she had once said, "that if we were
cast away upon a desert island, with just book
or two we should be so happy as to ask for
nothing more"
81 have often thought of it," he answered her.
GLOW much at one we Do you know there
are some substances that for long time seem
to be simple, one element only, strong, potent
for good; but find at last and mix with such
substance it's powerful attacking acid, and it re-
solves into two principles, each faint powerless,
good neither for itself nor for any thing else If
death should be that powerful attacking force for
US, resolving us into something other than the
one we are
death cannot do it," she cried triumphantly.
'.No," he said. Life cannot do it. Net even
death can do it. We shall be one to the grave,
in il and beyond it"
They could hardly remember time when they
had not been part of each other, in childhood.
or youth, or maturity. Although there was
difference of two three years in their ages, no
pleasure was complete for Helena unless Leonard
shared it, and the sorrow of one was the sorrow
Of both. When not yet strong enough to climb
they use. to kiss each other through the wick
St~ Later they played together in the orchard
grass and fell asleep in another's arms be-
meath the old plum trees there. Helena was five
years old-a little gypsy like creature, with her
great black eyes and rich color. and the fine
flowing threads of her thick black hair about
her face--ano Leonard, fair and comely as
child of light. when they set out to walk to the
end of the world together, hand in hand along
the dusky highway in the sun, till the end
seemed as far off as the beginning
They were children of much promise, and
Helena's ambitions did not suffer her to remain
far behind Leonard in their studies. When he
went away to school, she felt as If some integral
portion of herself had been severed from the
rect; and she forgot her aching and loneliness
only by burying herself in her books. When he
came home he told her how bitter were those
first days without her-perhaps the next half
term was not hard to him 1t was just as
hard to Helena, alone with her books, without
the stimulus of contact with class, but con-
tent with only his own emulation and approba-
Gho loea n d0lIChtg
her geopetrical demonstration, which had u sort
Of poetry In it, to her mind, in the marvels of
her astronomy or chemistry. but in the remain
ing moments she only seemed to live till
Leonard should come homo again. She went
with others. to his examination when
school was ending. She knew the theorem
almost as we'll as he, could read the VirGilian
line as we'll; but how swiftly, and simply.
and easily he made the one plain, how
gracefully and lightly ne rendered the other!
And when he recited the ballad OF Naseby, with
a white face and Are kindlinR In those lumi-
nous gray eyes, her heart thrilled and her blood
ran cold. although in studying by herself she
had hated all the Puritan rant That was sad
to her-that she and Leonard should not think
alike in all things: but they did not She formed
her feminine conclusions alone, and he bad SUB
tie and accomplished masters, and further
reach and fuller grasp Of mind. He had grea,
mind she thought to herself; he would do q
great work in the world. whether he won't into
politics and helped ''recast the nations old lntt
announcer
philosophical thesis and taught people how t.
think. or whether he took his medica! degree
and concerned himself with the origin OF mat
ter And then, at last, Leonard was In college
coming home and inseparaole from her IN nl
long vacations, but beginning to have thou
sand thoughts that were not her thoughts.
'sHow strange il is" she said to him one day
after an historical discussion, that We VIII
used to have one thought, are growing SO apartf
1--WE shall never grow apart, even II ono OF u.
thinks white black and the other thinks 1t blue,
he responded. 'Those are surface things; they
do not change our natures and ourselves Blu
for all your hatred Of the enemies of church ant
king, you are Puritan OF the Puritans your
ssls. my lady" he said, with his jestinR voice
and he laughed as he said it, twisting the long
loose tress Of darkness that had fallen on BIZ
shoulder as they leaned over the same book
What odds were any of her fanciess She wa
still the same sweet Helena.
elbow can you say such thingW
"Because it Is true You reproach me for Low
from 200 years of Puritan ancestry their cast q
mind, their austerity of conviction, their-I sur
pose If you knew won $50 at cards the night bt
fore came home"
.'Oh, Leonardo Leonardl'
81 said so. The Puritan!"
1.-THE Puritanw abe exclaimed the tears su.
pended on her glittsring lashes. Have the
intolerance, their cruelty, their vulgarity
their"
"You have their habit of thought, altered
the altered times. You are not the Puritan
the seventeenth century but you of Il
nineteenth. You are ready to cry because wo
some money at carisp and he laughed so gayl
that she could not be angry.
II should net think you would care for societ
If so disaeveeable-"
Hush nushr he answered her. 81 allow n
body to abuse my friends"
But, Leonard. about the cardsl You kno
how dangerous it is, how ruinous how it d.
stroys the very hber of the mind
TO win money at cardsf Look here, Helen
II you gaze at me so charmngly as that ma
make you promise. And it would be cruelt
to exact it. for play excellent game"
She was so beautiful to him in her indignatio
that he cared nothing about the indignation.
When the college days were over their tr
umphs had been Helena's as much as Leonard
and then before settling to the study of his pr
fession he went about the country little an
Mt the end of it spent the time in Europe though
necessary. Travel enlarges the point Of viev